Parental overproduction allows siblicidal bird to adjust brood size to climate-driven prey variation.

ABSTRACT: Parental overproduction is hypothesized to hedge against uncertainty over food availability and stochastic death of offspring and to improve brood fitness. Understanding the evolution of overproduction requires quantifying its benefits to parents across a wide range of ecological conditions, which has rarely been done. Using a multiple hypotheses approach and 30 years of data, we evaluated the benefits of overproduction in the Blue-footed booby, a seabird that lays up to three eggs asynchronously, resulting in an aggressive brood hierarchy that facilitates the death of last-hatched chicks under low food abundance. Results support the resource-tracking hypothesis, as low prey abundance (estimated from sea surface temperature and chlorophyll-a concentration) led to rapid brood reduction. The

SUBMITTER: Bizberg-Barraza I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10878367 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar-Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature